SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Hundreds of people attended a town hall meeting Thursday night to discuss the Fairmount Fire that sparked on Halloween night.
The meeting was hosted and organized by the Alvarado Estates Fire Safe Council and Kensington Fire Safe to discuss what worked and what still needs improvement should there be another emergency.
At the meeting, it was learned that a house was lost in the fire. The department shared pictures of the damage. The structure still stands, but the home is unlivable.
Fire officials urged people to create defensible space and have a plan in place should there be another fire.
After the presentation, the audience asked questions about the evacuation zones, traffic control, and the gridlock to get in and out of neighborhoods, many with one way in, one way out.
Some also shared concerns about how long it took parents to reunite with their kids evacuated from Hardy Elementary School and about overgrown brush and encampments in the area.
Officials explained that keeping the children safe was a priority, explaining that traffic resources also had to be diverted to reports of a shooting at SDSU.
The department also explained that a lot of the overgrown brush that burned was on private property.
Regarding encampments, police asked people to continue reporting any issues on the Get It Done app.
The fire department says the cause of the fire is still being investigated, admitting things could have been much worse. At the meeting, an assistant fire chief said that he expected 15 to 20 homes would be lost when he first arrived on the scene.
The assistant chief says the minimal wind and the quick response prevented that from happening.
